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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23041612">Draconian Love Story</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celairnith/pseuds/Celairnith'>Celairnith</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars, Star Wars Force Awakens - Fandom, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Dragons, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:26:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23041612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celairnith/pseuds/Celairnith</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A love story that is overdone and still so fun: Princess Rey wants to choose her destiny, parents want to lock her down, princess runs off to decide her own future. Insert a protective Kylo dragon and a loyal servant with a dark secret and you get a tale as old as time. Complete crack fic inspired by a new fandom friend (you know who you are!)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. By Her Rules</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Draconian Love Story- Chapter 1: By Her Rules</p><p>The dragon roared loudly from atop its perch. Wrapping around a stone spire that twisted into the smoky sky, it blasted a ball of fire after the small fighter jet that had dared to come in for a landing. The idiot that had the moxie to try and fight the dragon was clearly on a mission, but the dragon wasn’t going to let it anywhere near its prize. A prize that was rumored across the galaxy for its beauty, intellect, and cunning.</p><p>As it assured itself the jet was far over the horizon, the dragon groaned and lowered its large head towards the arched window of the tower. His deep voice rumbled in his chest, causing the tower the tremble lightly from the reverberations. “I think you effectively scared him off, princess.”</p><p>“Says the giant black lizard on my roof.” A woman leaned out the window, eating an apple as she looked into the dark amber eyes of her guardian. “Did you really have to blow fire in his direction, Kylo?”</p><p>“Hey. I’m a dragon. I have an image to uphold, you know.” The dragon slithered off the high tower and sat down on the ground, his head poking into the window. “So where’s that chicken you promised me for the show?”</p><p>“Three roast hens coming right up.” The woman walked over to the fire and pulled a roasting spit off it’s holder, placing it gently in the dragons mouth. He pulled the spit out and chomped on the tasty morsels, taking that moment to fan away the smoke in the air with his wings. </p><p>“So... yet another failure, I see.” Kylo tilted his large head as the woman groaned loudly.</p><p>“At this rate, I’ll have to secede to my father’s point. They gave me five years and we’re coming up on the fourth. I don’t know what else to do, Kylo.”</p><p>“Ask for an extension of the terms? From what I’ve heard of your story and what I have witnessed, you are quite a good negotiator. For a human.”</p><p>“I’ll ignore that jab, you big oaf.”</p><p>“Excuse you. But this ‘big oaf’ is one of the reasons you get so few champions in the first place. Or would you rather bat them off with your glow stick?”</p><p>“It’s not a glow stick. It’s a weapon and I would hope you know me well enough that I would fight them off if I had to.” The woman sighed and cracked her back. “But murder charges are hard to drop and I kind of like your company. Seeing as the only other company is... well...” She looked down the drop cliff of the island to the annoying little Porgs that hopped along the jagged landscape. They made for good target practice, but not much else.</p><p>“Can I ask, Princess... why do you not want to give in to your fathers terms? They sound reasonable given your societal expectations.”</p><p>Princess Rey glanced over at her scaly companion. He knew damn well why she didn’t want to give in: it would be agreeing to let someone else decide her life path. And she would be damned before she let that happen. Her family had not let her leave on the best of terms, but they were terms she could live with. She closed her eyes, remembering the last conversation she had with her father as her mother wept beside him:</p><p>“You get five years. We will put out an open invitation for anyone willing to go to you and try for your hand. If you cannot find a suitor that fits your exhaustive list of expectations, you will come home immediately or I will drag you back by force.” He looked exhausted and fed up with his daughters headstrong nature. If five years was what it would take for him to get his way, he was a patient man.</p><p>“And you will let me go? Alone?” Rey’s heart had leapt in excitement, finally getting to do what she had always wanted: forge her own path through the galaxy.</p><p>“Absolutely not! You need a protector. You are still human, Rey. If someone were to kill you in your sleep...” Her mother wailed at the phrasing and ran out of the room, her father looking flustered by his choice of words. “However, I will allow you to choose who you take. But please don’t let it be...”</p><p>“The dragon.” Her father moaned and rubbed his temples.</p><p>“Rey... I have fighters by the thousands. Scholars. Intellects. People you can hold a damn conversation with. And you want the damn dragon. By the Jedi Order, why?”</p><p>“Because I know he will not judge me for my decision, should I ultimately make one. Besides, he is a good conversationalist.”</p><p>“A little blunt if you ask me.” Her father looked out the window, seeing a small black dot get closer on the horizon. It was almost as if the damn demon was psychic, appearing whenever Rey mentioned him.</p><p>“Kylo is straightforward. And that is what I like about him.” Rey turned to leave the throne room. “I will speak to him about where he feels it will be safest for me to reside. Once you agree to it, then we’ll be off.”</p><p>“Rey...” She turned back to look at her father “Please be safe... you’re my only daughter. I only want what is best for you.”</p><p>“I know you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be letting me go.” Rey smiled and walked out of the room. She sighed and shook her head free of the memory.</p><p>“You remember the conversation. So why must I repeat myself?”</p><p>“Because sometimes it helps to walk down old paths to pinpoint old information.” Kylo curled up and lay at the base of the tower, offering his tail for Rey to step on to come down. </p><p>“You know I have stairs, right? Not to mention a lot of other rooms I should be cleaning right now.” She turned to the left and looked at the square building attached to her bedroom tower. There were plenty of other bedrooms she could have taken (eight others, to be exact), but the overly dramatic ideal of the ‘damsel in distress in the tower’ was too funny for her to pass up making the spire her home. She was certainly no damsel. And she was certainly never in distress with her trusty bodyguard by her side.</p><p>“You and I both know you want to go training after that moron riled you up with the ‘women in the kitchen’ comment. Take the stairs offered to you and you can get there faster.”</p><p>“How did you know that comment got to me?” Rey swung her legs over the edge and sat within the raised scales on the tail, admiring the dark crimson sparkling in the depths of their onyx coloring.</p><p>“I could feel your rage explode just below my chest. I figured I better scare the poor devil off before you got to him.” He lowered her to the ground, staying low to the ground to watch her walk up to eye level.</p><p>“Since we’re in the topic of answering questions, can you remind me how you knew the owner of this place?” The dragon rolled his eyes to the amusement of the woman.</p><p>“Let’s just say he and I have an... unfortunate agreement that we have to keep. Plus, I knew your father would be more willing to let you go if he knew there was someone there to guard you day and night. You’re not easy to keep watch over.”</p><p>“I know and I’m sorry for that.” Rey kicked at a pebble as she looked away from the assessing eyes of her friend. “I just don’t know what to do when I get so frantic. I have to run. I have to get away.”</p><p>“Kind of hard when the only place to get away is the ocean. You never did get far enough to find any other land, did you?”</p><p>“You always found me before I could get into any more trouble.” Rey smiled and patted the side of Kylo’s scaled face.</p><p>“There may be a day I won’t be able to be there, Rey. But until that day comes, I’ll keep my promise to watch over you until your deal with your father comes up.” He nudged the young woman forward. “Now go. You only have a few hours of daylight left and then I have to go hunting. Chickens notwithstanding, I need some more weighty food options to keep me going. Winter is almost upon us, you know.” Rey nodded and turned towards the cliff edge, dropping off the edge to climb down to the cave she often used for practice. Kylo stretched and resumed his perch on top of the tower, scanning the horizons for anyone else who wished to come try their luck.</p><p>** First chapter down. Feel free to give feedback and comments. Would love to continue this if the interest is there. TTYL!**</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Day and Night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rey thinks back on how she first met Kylo and how it changed her life.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Draconian Love Story- Chapter 2: Day and Night</p><p>Rey sat in quiet contemplation, drawing in the Force through her inward breaths and expelling her doubts and fears on her exhales. Sweat trickled down her back, reminding her that she was in desperate need of a bath before her evening work load began. She sighed as she recalled her good intentions to clean up the rest of the grounds. Now that her aggravation over the presence of the suitor had put it off, she had to buck up and get through it all that night.</p><p>So much for sleep. Rey stood and cracked her back before heading out into the slowly chilling air. She glanced up to see the sun starting its descent towards the horizon. If she hurried, she could catch Kylo before his nightly hunting run. After punting a couple Porgs out of the way, she hopped up a natural stairway towards a tiny outcrop of trees, picking some fruits along the pathway. She pushed aside a branch and looked up at the spire to see Kylo scanning the ocean edges, his eyes squinting when he saw any movement. How they had become friends was a lesson in Fate, if one believed in that sort of thing.</p><p>Rey smiled as she thought back to her days as an ‘impetuous little brat’ )those were her tutors' words, not her own). On a day that she decided to go on an unsanctioned botany exploration in the fields behind her parents castle, she had managed to get caught in a sudden rainstorm. She couldn’t make heads or tails of where her home was in the thick fog and ended up getting horribly turned around. She stumbled blindly with her hands out in front of her for what felt like hours before she ran smack into a stoney outcropping, scrambling through the rocks until she found a cave entrance in the lower part of the pile. She knew her father would send out the trackers when she wasn’t found on the grounds, so waiting in one place was her best bet of being found.</p><p>If she wasn’t found by something else first…</p><p>“You know, normally it's considered good manners to announce your presence before walking into someone’s home.” Rey yelped as she quickly turned around to see two giant dark amber eyes blink slowly back at her in the darkness.</p><p>“I… I’m sorry… I was just so cold and wet…” To punctuate the sentiment, she sneezed, causing the eyes to tilt.</p><p>“You look a little young to be out in a storm by yourself.”</p><p>“I’m eight. That’s old enough.” Rey crossed her arms and leaned forward to try and see who she was speaking to.</p><p>“Oh my apologies. I didn’t realize the new age of adulthood was lowered to such a degree.” The eyes rolled before shutting. “You may want to come closer, little one. I cannot offer much, but I can assure you that my body warmth will stave off that cold you’re developing.”</p><p>“How can I trust you? How do I know you won’t kidnap me for a ransom?” The eyes popped open to look at the little tyke again. They grew bigger and closer as Rey felt the ground tremble with movement, a long, black scaly head coming into vague view in the shadows as the nostrils sniffed warm air over the little girl.</p><p>“Are you related to the royal family that has taken over the castle on the hill?” Rey stared at the long teeth that formed the sentence before nodding in amazement. She reached out to touch the giant nose in front of her, trying to form a sentence.</p><p>“Are you a dragon? My teacher told me you had gone extinct ages ago.” The dragon huffed and lowered himself back to the ground, his tail coming around to the back of the girl so she could sit down on something warm.</p><p>“Your powers of observation are as keen as your teacher is stupid.” Rey giggled at the sentence, tucking it back for future use. “I am not the only dragon alive, though I am the only one I have ever seen out in this area.”</p><p>“What happened to your family? Are you lonely?” The dragon sighed at the question. </p><p>“Aren’t you asking rather personal questions Miss…?”</p><p>“Princess. Princess Rey.” Rey sat up as the dragon smirked at her haughty nature.</p><p>“Well well… Your Highness. It is a pleasure to finally meet a real princess. I had only read of your type in fairy tales.”</p><p>“I was going to say that about you!” Rey giggled as the dragon let out a low throaty laugh.</p><p>Children will believe anything. But she is a fiesty one, I’ll give you that. The dragon perked up as he heard the silence of the world outside. The rain had finally passed, which meant the little lady would be searched for eventually.</p><p>“I think you should get out to higher ground, my lady. This way your soldiers will be able to find you easier.”</p><p>“They are my daddy’s soldiers, not mine.” Rey huffed as she slid off the dragon’s tail.</p><p>“Not yet they aren’t. But they will bow to you eventually.” The dragon stuck his head out the entrance, his ears picking up the far distant sound of horses. “I would be terribly appreciative if you do not tell them of my existence. I like the idea of remaining very much alive.”</p><p>“Only if you tell me your name.”</p><p>“What makes you think I have a name?” Rey kicked at a pebble and shrugged; her body language acting like it was a commonplace thing for all dragons to have a name. “If it is that important to you, I suppose you could call me… Kylo.”</p><p>“‘Kylo?’ That’s not a terribly scary name.” Rey crossed her arms, not convinced by the bait.</p><p>“You’re telling a dragon whose teeth are longer than you that his name isn’t scary?” Kylo punctuated the statement by pulling back his lips to show his teeth framed in slight steam.</p><p>“... okay. You might be a little scary.” Rey headed out the cave and looked back as she ran towards home. “But you’re not all that bad! You didn’t eat me!” Kylo chuckled as he pulled himself back into the depths of the cave, his form disappearing from sight as Rey came in view of her father’s archers. The next time she turned around, she couldn’t see him at all. </p><p>Over the following eleven years, she would go down to the outcropping to get a new perspective and viewpoint. However, her father was none to pleased at her choice of non-human friends, especially since Kylo’s sense of humor was rubbing off on her.</p><p>Shortly after her nineteenth birthday, she had come down to the cave with a basket of apples to share with her Kylo. Whenever she brought treats, that meant she had a favor to ask.</p><p>“What do you need now, Your Highness?” Kylo stretched out his wings in the warm sun as Rey tossed him apples from the top of the rocks.</p><p>“What? I can’t just visit?” Kylo deliberatly missed catching an apple to give the woman an ‘Are-you-trying-to-pull-wool-over-a-fucking-dragons-eyes?’ look. She sighed and sat down. “I just don’t know what to do about the whole marriage proposition daddy gave me, Kylo. I just hate every man he’s brought to the castle. I want to have a say in the future I’m going to be living.”</p><p>“Have you considered expanding your options? Maybe try courting any of the other princesses in the area?”</p><p>“Not my cup of tea, but I’m starting to get desperate enough.” Rey growled and ran a hand through her hair. “I just wish I could get away for awhile. Get my head on straight. Figure myself out before I give into family demands. But my father would never let me get away from my duties. He’s bound and determined to see me wed.”</p><p>“May I make a suggestion?” Rey looked up to see a contemplative dragon looking over her shoulder at the castle. “Why don’t you get away while keeping the courting options open? It sounds as if that is the only real stipulation that is keeping you tied down here. If your father objects outright, see if you can agree on a time frame that you will be gone before you must make up your mind.”</p><p>“That’s…” Rey slowly digested the information and smiled. “That sounds terrific, Kylo. You’re pretty smart for a dragon.”</p><p>“We have bigger brains than humans, you know.” Kylo sniffed, a puff of steam leaving his nose as he looked behind him to the south. “If your father is reluctant to let you leave, I could offer my services as a guardian. It’s the least I could do since you convinced the soldiers to leave me alone all these years.”</p><p>“The only service I would want from you is as my friend, Kylo.” Rey stood, leaving the basket of apples on the ground. “I’ll go talk to my father now. If you know of any place we could go, please be ready to present your plans to the king.”</p><p>“As long as he keeps that damn spear out of my face, I’ll be happy to oblige.” Kylo turned and leaned into his cave, looking to see if there was any leftover  food he could scarf before the possible journey ahead.</p><p>The rest, as they say, was history.</p><p>Rey smiled as she walked out into the clearing, Kylo looking down from the tower to see her.</p><p>“Good timing. I was just about to go hunting. Do you need any more fish for the drying racks?”</p><p>“No. I think I’m stocked up for another couple months. Are you going to report to father?”</p><p>“I have another week before I need to make a report. I’ll just let him know you’re as stubborn as ever, but you are willingly allowing suitors to visit with only a little resistance.”</p><p>“Aw. You’re being nice again.” Kylo rolled his eyes at the princess before opening his wings.</p><p>“Get inside before it gets too cold. I saw some dark clouds on the horizon that you may want to prepare for.” At that, he leapt off the tower and floated gently into the distance. Rey stayed outside until the cold penetrated her skin and forced her hand to move indoors. The thin stone was a horrible insulator and it forced Rey to move from room to room, lighting all the fireplaces to keep the cold and creepy crawlies away from her base of operations. </p><p>After preparing some fishbone soup and bread, she headed up the winding staircase to her tower bedroom, happy she had remembered to keep the heavy door open after the last man fled from Kylo’s roar. She set her dishes on a long wooden table that was littered with books, inks, and papers, kicking a heavy book on combat towards the rug by the fireplace. Noting the chill in the room, she opened the wood chest at the base of her wide bed, pulling out a thick woolen blanket which she threw onto her bed before pulling out a shoulder throw of the same fabric. After securing it with a belt, she turned her attention to the hearth, lighting a warm fire whose light filled the whole room. She then moved two of her chairs to the front of the fire, bringing the food to place on one chair as she sat in the other. She flipped open the book on the floor to the last page she had been at, perusing it as she ate quietly.</p><p>Moments slipped by in silence, slowly dimming the embers in the fireplace. As she leaned over to poke the embers back to life, she heard a deep cough at the doorway, only glancing up to acknowledge the disturbance. A tall man in a matching dark tunic and pants ensemble stood in the entry, shoulder length black hair slightly dripping from the rain that had started outside. He bowed slightly in her direction as he saw her eyes look up at him.</p><p>“Good evening, Your Highness.”</p><p>** Chapter two finished! Thank you so much for all the kudos and comments. I am not worthy. Feel free to continue to give feedback and comments. Would love to continue this if the interest is (still) there. TTYL!**</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Bonded</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rey and Ben talk about the meaning of entering into strange dealings with dragons.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey watched as Ben moved towards the windows, pulling the curtains across them to block out more of the rain and keep the warmth in the room. His slow, sinewy movements used every part of his body; no motion was wasted or without purpose. He had taught her basic defensive movements when they had trained with their light sabers, showing her how much of the way she placed her feet and threw her body around was a useless display and sapped her of more strength than she could afford to lose in one-on-one fights. She could still feel the heat of his blade as it came dangerously close to her heart, shoulders, or neck to drive home the point of how every motion must be calculated and planned, making her think quicker and quicker on her feet as they ran drills.</p><p>Ben walked over to the seat across from Rey and picked up the remains of her empty food and the dishes they rested on before placing them on the desk behind the chair. Rey picked up the book from the floor and sat back as Ben sat himself across from her. The firelight danced across his body, contrasting soft shadows with sharp lines. Even though his clothing was loose, Rey knew full well how hard that body was beneath the training robes. Whenever they did grappling work, it was like Rey was fighting with a brick wall. She often wondered if he lost deliberately because he knew she wasn’t as built as he was.</p><p>“Something on your mind, your Highness?” Rey snapped back to the present, glaring at the smirk on Ben’s face.</p><p>“I just had another hard day is all.” Rey sighed and looked over at the fire.</p><p>“Another suitor? How badly did that one go?” Ben leaned forward, his face the calm mask of an attentive listener.</p><p>“I knew it wasn’t going to work the second he introduced himself. The poor bastard's name was Lord Lear. Chandé Lear.”</p><p>Ben tried his damndest to not smile, but a snort made its way up out of his throat before he could stop it. He covered his mouth and his eyes crinkled as a low laugh overtook him, Rey smiling at his enjoyment. They had grown quite close over the nearly four years that she had been welcomed into his establishment. Though he kept his professional distance as contracted by her father, he still had the humane wherewithal to still treat her like a human being and not a dainty porcelain doll like her family had done.</p><p>“That… um…” Ben coughed and looked back at Rey with a smile. “That’s either a very unfortunate or deliberate move on his parents part.”</p><p>“Well they certainly didn’t raise him with social etiquette cues, that’s for damn sure.” Rey rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Oh come now. It surely couldn’t have been as bad as all that.”</p><p>“He told me princesses belong on pedestals and queens belong in kitchens and nursing rooms, like his mother had displayed with quiet dignity all of his and his siblings' life.” Ben’s blank stare met hers in an ‘are you fucking kidding me’ look that she silently nodded to.</p><p>“Scratch that. He’s a twat.” Ben cricked his neck and stood up to walk to the table, grabbing an ink quill and paper. “I’m going to jot this down to leave with Kylo when he delivers the check-in message to your father. What else do you want me to put down as reason for the rejection?”</p><p>Rey started ticking reasons off her fingers. “That he kept referring to himself in the third person. That he wouldn’t let me speak my piece. That he acted like I should feel honored to be in his presence when I didn’t know who he was. That he forcibly tried to kiss me and that I slammed a glass bowl over his head and that’s when Kylo came to scare the idiot off. That he...”</p><p>“Hold on a moment.” Ben stopped mid-scratch of the quill and looked over his shoulder. “What… did you say he did?”</p><p>“That he forcibly tried to kiss me and that I slammed a glass bowl over his head and that’s when Kylo came to scare the idiot off.” Rey reiterated. Ben turned his face, so Rey couldn’t see the look on his face, but his shoulders were noticeably tighter as he wrote down the statement. After jotting down a couple more reasons, he set down the quill and sighed deeply.</p><p>“I don’t know if these men are just getting desperate to prove they can win you or if things could be getting more dangerous.” He turned and leaned against the table, crossing his large arms across his broad chest. “Between the one who tried to stab you and the one you claimed ‘fell down the stairs of his own volition’, I’m getting worried about you even making it to the five year mark.”</p><p>“It’s only a year away, Ben.” Rey shrugged and smiled tightly. “Besides… I’ve kind of resigned myself to my fate. I’m just too damn picky.”</p><p>“It’s not picky if you know what you want. It’s setting a standard that you will not let anyone but the most worthy to be by your side. I find that quite admirable of you.”</p><p>“Thank you, but my father will have other plans if I don’t find someone by next year. And then…” Rey picked up a poker to rake over the dying coals. “Then… I’ll have to settle for whatever he wants for me.”</p><p>“Well, you have a little over a year. Worry when you get closer to it.” Ben walked towards the door and propped it open. “Now… I do remember you telling me you wanted to do some cleaning today. I noticed the distinct lack of cleanliness as I came in.” Rey rolled her eyes and smiled as she followed Ben down the stairs to tackle the evening chores together. Things always went faster when they worked in tandem.<br/>
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*<br/>
Later that evening, Rey flopped face first on her bed, exhausted from all the work. Ben had taken on the larger roles of cleaning the training rooms and the lavatories thus taking care of much of the work, but that didn’t make it any less exhausting for her. She turned her head on the bed to see Ben walk in with two cups of rosalinia tea, a native plant of relaxation from his home.</p><p>“You did well today, Your Highness.”</p><p>“We’ve known each other almost four years, Ben. Are you ever going to call me Rey?” Rey asked as she accepted the tea.</p><p>“It’s too personal for me to call you that. I’m still under contract with your father, so I make it a point to not let personal colloquialisms get in the way of my job.” Ben dragged a chair to the foot of Rey’s bed, sitting as she sat cross legged against the pillows.</p><p>“And your job is to keep me out of trouble?” Rey joked.</p><p>“No. That’s Kylo’s end. You get in more trouble when you’re awake. I’m just here to scan the planet for more habitable zones of conquest and to defend you should unwelcome visitors come in the night. A glorified night watchman, as it were.”</p><p>“Must be boring for you.” Rey took a sip of the tea, delighting in its fruity, herbal taste.</p><p>“I have the books in the library and training to keep me busy. So I’m never bored.”</p><p>“But you have to sleep sometime.”</p><p>“People do sleep during the day, Rey.” Ben smiled. “Though, granted, I don’t sleep much while I’m in the surveyor position. I just catch cat naps until the radar tells me I’m about to hit something.”</p><p>“You must get lonely though. Surely your family has wondered where you’ve gone the past four years, being employed by my father.”</p><p>“It’s being taken care of.” Ben took a deep drink, cutting off that line of talk. But Rey was curious. She hardly knew anything about the man other than that her father used him as a surveyor and that Kylo knew of him. And that he had this strange island in the middle of nowhere. Everytime she pressed the issue, he found some way to deflect the conversation, but she kept pressing. She wasn’t called ‘stubborn’ for nothing.</p><p>“Ben. Can I ask you a question? About you?” Ben looked up as he set his cup aside, curiosity and suspicion clear across his face.</p><p>“You always ask and I never answer. Isn’t that how this dynamic is supposed to stay?”</p><p>“You choose to not answer my questions. But if I’m ever going to fully trust you, I want to know a few things about you. You already know everything about me.”</p><p>Ben closed his eyes and clasped his hands in front of his lip. He was deep in thought and Rey sat on edge waiting for his response. After a moment he opened his eyes and looked at her.</p><p>“One question a week. And it is my choice if I wish to answer it or even answer it fully.”</p><p>“But if you do answer, it will be honestly?” Rey asked.</p><p>“Yes. I can’t lie to you, Your Highness.” Ben sat back again. “Besides, you’ve been here almost four years. I may as well be a hospitable host before you take off.”</p><p>“Oh? You weren’t hospitable before?” Rey joked.</p><p>“I don’t think beating up a princess with a lightsaber or sword counts as hospitable, no.” Ben tried to keep a straight face, but the left side of his lip lifted just a trifle.</p><p>“You never beat me up.” Rey scooted forward, wanting to make her first question worth it. “How do you and Kylo know each other?”</p><p>Ben sighed and looked over at the window. The rain had stopped and a clear, starry sky was visible. The light of the double moons hit his face, lighting up the deep look in his dark eyes.</p><p>“You must understand, I cannot tell you the whole story because half of it is not mine to tell.” Rey nodded, setting her cup on the bedside vanity before giving her full attention to Ben. She dared not speak for fear of her words breaking the heavy spell of intrigue in the room.</p><p>“Kylo was an unfortunate victim in my games.” Ben ran a hand through his hair as if rifling through a catalogue of memories to find the right one. “There is a reason I’ve been on this island for so long, Rey. I was banished here, years ago, for murder.” </p><p>Rey’s jaw dropped. The soft-spoken, withdrawn man before her… was a murderer?</p><p>“It wasn’t just one. It was multiple murders.” Ben looked anywhere but at Rey’s probing gaze. “Kylo just happened to witness the moment I went up against several Jedi masters that had been searching for me to bring me to trial. By his perspective, it looked like multiple people were ganging up on one individual and he attempted to rescue me. That was a mistake, however, that would prove damning for both him and myself.” Ben paused as if trying to recall some deep memory. “I don’t know how I missed it, but one of the masters was trained in the art of dark magic. A long banished form that had not seen a noted practitioner in many years. Kylo knows more than I, but the master believed we were co-conspirators and we were cursed to live and die through each other's dealings. Whatever happens to me, he feels. If he is injured, I hurt. One of us dies, the other will surely perish.”</p><p>“How long has that been?” Rey whispered quietly.</p><p>“Another question for another week.” Ben stood and walked over to the window. “Get some rest, Your Highness. I don’t want Kylo breathing down my neck if you wake up exhausted.”</p><p>Rey laid down and rolled over, watching Ben’s form as his eyes flitted over the horizon. He had finally given her some of the story. But when would she hear the whole tale?</p><p>As darkness filled her vision, she quietly promised herself to talk to Kylo in the morning. In her dream-state, she thought she felt someone pull the blankets over her, but that could have just been the wind. </p><p>***Thank you for your patience everyone. Things have been happening at home that have prevented me from writing much, but I finally got back on it. Hope you all can forgive me. *bows*</p>
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